More clean-energy manufacturing tax credits available

Iowa manufacturers can access an additional $150 million in Advanced Energy Manufacturing Tax Credits, but they’ll have to be quick about it, says a Des Moines tax expert.

The U.S. Energy and Treasury departments on Thursday announced the additional funding. The initial round of funding in January 2010 provided $2.3 billion in credits to 183 projects across the country.

However, the process “moved so quickly the first time around that it was over before it really started,” said Dustin Petersen, a partner with McGladrey LLP in Des Moines who leads the firm’s national alternative energy practice. Petersen said the initial round of funding closed out within a month after receiving more than $8 billion in requests.

“We heard from a number of companies after the original funding that just were not aware of the timing,” he said.

Petersen said he hopes this new round provides a better opportunity for Iowa companies to win some of the tax credits, which will be allocated on a competitive basis.

The tax credit program, established by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, was designed to support investment in domestic, clean energy and energy efficiency manufacturing facilities through a competitively-awarded 30 percent investment tax credit.

In that initial round, TPI Composites Inc. received $3.9 million in tax credits for expansion of its Newton turbine blade manufacturing facility. Also in Iowa, American Railcar Industries in Fort Dodge received $5.4 million in tax credits for a project to re-equip a manufacturing plant to make structural towers for wind turbines.

The full solicitation is available on the Internal Revenue Service website.